In an effort to help customers troubleshoot Wi-Fi connections, McDonald's has painted a stark portrayal of the difference between the Windows and Mac experience.

This Twitpic post is a prickly reminder of the ghosts of Windows past. In the photo (below), McDonald's makes a valiant effort to help hapless owners of laptops running Windows Vista or XP make a Wi-Fi connection in its restaurants. Inadvertently, the photo--based, apparently, on a dated McDonald's pamphlet--also makes a statement on the complexity of Windows versus Apple's Mac.

As is immediately apparent, the pamphlet shows the connection to a Mac with OS X as a snap.

McDonald's step-by-step guide for customers who 'need more help' to make a Wi-Fi connection makes a graphic statement about Windows vs. Mac.Photo by Twitpic user @macpricesaus

It's not clear how old the pamphlet is, though AT&T currently has a multi-step Windows XP tutorial on its Web site too that actually makes the McDonald's pamphlet seem positively pithy.

Needless to say, most Windows users are not going to need this kind of step-by-step setup, especially with Windows 7.